Friday, 31 August 2012

St. Anne's Lager Beer

I told you I'd be returning to St. Anne's Well Lager Beer. I bet you hadn't expected it to be quite so quickly.

As you can see from the advert, they were still plugging away in 1885.

ST. ANNE'S LAGER BEER
A LIGHT, AGREEABLE TONIC.
TESTIMONIALS are daily received the parity and excellence of
ST. ANNE'S LAGER BEER.
SOLD IN PATENT SCREW-BTOPPERED BOTTLES — IMPERIAL PINTS ONLY —
AT 3s 6d PER DOZEN
Charles Ekis, Esq., F. C. S., writes:
"The results of my Analysts of the St. Anne's Lager Beer show that it is perfectly sound, light, wholesome beer of moderate alcoholic strength, and possessing considerable aromatic and tonic properties. No traces of any other bitter than that hops be discovered."

Sold by gents in Town and Country.
ST. ANNE'S WELL BREWERY, EXETER.
Western Times - Friday 06 November 1885, page 4.

I wonder why they were so keen to stress only hops had been used for bittering? I strychnine scandal (that never was) had been decades before.

3s 6d for a dozen pints. That's 3.5d per pint. Let's do a bit of contextualisation. A pint of Draught Mild (X Ale) cost 2d a pint in the 1890's. And would probably have been a bit stronger than Lager. Guinness Extra Stout, a powerful beer at 1075º, also cost 3.5d for a pint bottle. A pint bottle of Bass cost 3.5d to 3.75d, but that was an expensive drink. And also a good bit stronger than Lager.

Bad value for money. Something of a recurring theme with British Lager.

Make your birthday special

By brewing a beer originally made on that date.

For a mere 25 euros, I'll create a bespoke recipe for any day of the year you like. As well as the recipe, there's a few hundred words of text describing the beer and its historical context and an image of the original brewing record.